DICK WRAY (1933–2011)

Born in 1933 in Houston, Texas, Dick Wray has developed a large and respected body of painted and mixed media works. Wray took free art lessons at the Museum of Fine Arts in his early teens, graduated from Lamar High School and, following military service in the U. S. Army from 1953 to 1955, he studied at the University of Houston's School of Architecture from 1955 to 1958, and later in 1958 he finished his studies at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Wray took off for Europe in 1958 to discover for himself the center of the art world, starting his journey in Paris. The two years spent in Europe laid the foundation for his painting career. Inspired by the art of the abstract expressionists, the work of the artists of the CoBrA group and the New York Abstract Expressionists – which he saw for the first time in Europe – Wray returned to Houston at age 26 knowing for certain that he wanted to be an artist, not an architect.

Wray has a relentless list of exhibition credits dating from his participation in the Special Presentations and Lectures series at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 1961. Highlights from his group exhibitions include the exhibition Homage to Lithography at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1969, the Texas Today exhibition at the Fort Worth Art Museum in 1977 and the Artist's Eye at the Kimball Museum also in Fort Worth in 1985. Solo exhibitions include the 1977 Paintings and Drawings at the Lerner-Heller Gallery in New York City, the 1986 Dick Wray Monoprints exhibition at the Galveston Arts Center and the Texas Artist of the Year- 2000 exhibition sponsored by the Art League Houston.

Wray's work has been honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Artists Grant and has been included in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo, New York, the Palm Springs Desert Museum in Palm Springs, California, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Witte Memorial Museum of San Antonio and the Barrett Collection in Dallas, Texas.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

· 1933 Born in Houston, Texas

· 1953–55 Served in U.S. Army

· 1955–58 School of Architecture, University of Houston, Houston, Texas

· 1958 Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf, Germany

· 1964 Guest Artist, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California

· 1968–82 Instructor, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1974 Artist-in-Residence, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

· 1975 Guest Artist, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

· 1978 Artist Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC

· 1983 Guest Artist, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, Colorado

· 2000 Texas Artist of the Year, Art League of Houston, Texas

· 2011 Died in Houston, Texas

Selected Prizes, Awards

· Purchase Prize 1962 MFAH The Southwest: Painting and Sculpture; Material Prize 1960 Houston Annual

· 1960 Material Prize, One of the Five is a Tree, oil, 35th Houston Annual

· 1962 Ford Foundation Purchase Prize, Eva Plus Five, MFAH The Southwest: Painting and Sculpture

Selected Exhibitions

· 1960 35th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (materials prize)

· 1960 Dick Wray Paintings, Louisiana Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1961 23rd Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1961-1962, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont; Museum, Texas Tech, Lubbock, Texas

· 1961 Ways and Means, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas

· 1962 The Southwest: Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (purchase prize)

· 1963 Dick Wray Drawings, Louisiana Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1963 25th Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1963-1964, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Centennial Art Museum, Corpus Christi; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso; Witte Museum, San Antonio; University of Texas at Austin, Texas

· 1963 Some Recent Accessions 1961-1963, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1964 Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California

· 1965 100 Contemporary American Drawings, Museum of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

· 1966 Dick Wray, New Works, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas

· 1968 The Sphere of Art in Texas, Texas Fine Arts Commission, Texas Pavilion, Hemisfair ‘68, San Antonio, Texas

· 1969 Tamarind Homage to Lithography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (catalogue)

· 1970 Solo, Dick Wray—Recent Paintings and Graphics, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1970 Dick Wray Paintings, Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1971–72 Texas Painting and Sculpture: The 20th Century, Pollack Galleries, Owen Arts Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, traveled to: Witte Confluence Museum, HemisFair Plaza, San Antonio; University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; The Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas (catalogue)

· 1971 Other Coasts Exhibition, 71, California State University, Long Beach, California (catalogue)

· 1973 Houston Invitational Exhibition, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas

· 1974 Abstract Painting and Sculpture in Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1975 Dick Wray, Retrospective, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1976 The Dog Show, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

· 1976 The Texas 20 Best, Nave Museum, Victoria, Texas

· 1976, 1977 Solos, Pelham-Von Stoffler Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1977 Texas Today: Three Exhibitions—Dick Wray Selected Paintings, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas

· 1977 Born in Texas/The Best of Texas, Sakowitz, Houston, Texas

· 1977 Solo, Lerner-Heller, New York, New York

· 1978 Solo, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas

· 1978 A Glimpse of Houston, Works on Paper by Nine Texas Artists, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California (catalogue)

· 1978 What’s Up in Texas, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

· 1978 Art of Texas, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Illinois

· 1978 The Spirit of Texas, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

· 1979 Made in Texas, Huntington Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, Texas (catalogue)

· 1979 Larger Canvas Two: Art for Billboards, commissioned by RepublicBank, Houston, Texas

· 1979 Solo, Roberto Molina Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1979 FIRE!, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1979 Solo, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, Texas

· 1980 Response, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas (catalogue)

· 1980, 1981 Annual Faculty Exhibition, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1981 Moody Gallery Exhibition at Linda Durham Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, traveled to Pat Ryan Gallery, Bryan, Texas

· 1981 Solo, Drawings, Patrick Ryan Gallery, Bryan, Texas

· 1981 Celebration ’81—The Road Show, Assistance League of Houston, Two Houston Center, Houston, Texas

· 1981 Two Views of Houston, San Antonio Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas

· 1981 Solo, Painting and Drawings, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1982 Art from Houston in Norway 1982, Stavanger Kunstforening, Norway; Tromso Kunstforening, Norway; Christiansand Kunstforening, Norway; Oslo Kunstforening, Norway (catalogue)

· 1982 In Our Time: Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum, 1948-1982, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1983 A Salute to Houston Artists, Midtown Art Center, Houston, Texas

· 1983 Nine Realities, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

· 1983 New Art From a New City: Houston, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria, traveled to: Galerie an der Stadtmauer, Villach, Austria; Museum of Modern Art, Vienna; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, West Germany (catalogue)

· 1984 Dick Wray: Monotypes, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1984 Gateway Gallery Experience, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1984 1984 Show, Houston Women’s Caucus for Art, Two Houston Center, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1984 Houston Contemporary Art in Public Places, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Houston, Texas

· 1985 Artists Eye, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

· 1985 Dick Wray Paintings, 1975-1985, Midtown Art Center, Houston, Texas

· 1985 Sam Scott/Dick Wray Paintings, Nave Museum, Victoria, Texas

· 1985 Then, Now. . .And Then, Lawndale Annex, University of Houston, Texas

· 1985 The New Nude, Midtown Art Center, Houston, Texas

· 1985 Fresh Paint: The Houston School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, traveled to: Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc. (MoMA PS1), Queens, New York; Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (catalogue)

· 1985 Solo, Paintings and Monotypes, Southwest Craft Center, San Antonio, Texas

· 1985 American Abstraction: Four Currents, Louis K. Meisel Gallery New York, New York (catalogue)

· 1985 10 Year Anniversary Celebration, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1985 Works on Paper: Eleven Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1986 Dick Wray Monoprints 1986-90, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, Texas

· 1986 Collaborators: Artists Working Together in Houston 1969–1986, Glassell School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1986 Third Western States Exhibition, Western States Art Foundation, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, traveled to: New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, Louisiana; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Yellowstone Fine Art Center, Billings, Montana; Palm Springs Desert Museum, California; San Jose Museum of Art, California (catalogue)

· 1986 Solo, New Paintings, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1987 Third Coast Review, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, traveled (catalogue)

· 1987 Abstract Sensibilities Now: A Selection from the Houston Area, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas

· 1987 Solo, Paintings, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas

· 1987 Moody Gallery Exhibition of Works on Paper, Nave Museum, Victoria, Texas

· 1987 Line and Form: Contemporary Texas Figurative Drawing, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

· 1988 Texas Art: An Exhibition selected from the Menil Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Trustees’ Collections of the Contemporary Arts Museum, Menil Collection Richmond Hall, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1988 Third Annual Invitational Plate Show, Judy Youens Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1988 Selected Prints—Shark’s Incorporated, Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, Colorado

· 1988 Zoomorphism: Animals in Art, Trammel Crow Center, Dallas, Texas

· 1989 The Artist’s Eye: Fourteen Collections, Diverse Works, Houston, Texas

· 1989 Solo, Monotypes, Cathleen Gallander/Susan Lang, New York, New York

· 1989 Looking at Color, Transco Gallery, Transco Tower, Houston, Texas

· 1989 Solo, Recent Paintings, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas

· 1989 Monotypes of 4 Artists, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1989 Drawing Conclusions, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

· 1989 Just Paint, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, Texas

· 1990 Tradition and Innovation: A Museum Celebration of Texas Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1990 15 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1990 Organic Abstractions, Rudder Hall, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

· 1990 Printmaking in Texas: The 1980s, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, Texas

· 1991 One Line: Drawings by Texas Artists, Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, Texas

· 1991 Solo, Recent Paintings, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1991-92 Island Inspired, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas, traveled to: Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches; Transco Gallery, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1992 Recent Prints, Shark’s Incorporated, Boulder, Colorado

· 1992 Singular and Plural, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1992 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Art Center of Waco, Texas

· 1992 Texas Art Celebration ’92, Cullen Center, Houston, Texas

· 1992 New Texas Art, Cheney Coles Museum, Spillane, Washington; Boise Art Museum, Boise, Idaho

· 1993 Artists’ Progress: Seven Houston Artists 1943–1993, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1993 Solo, Xerography and Collages, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1993 Fur, Fins, Feathers, and More, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas

· 1994 Dick Wray: Paintings and Drawings, Museum of East Texas, Lufkin, Texas

· 1994 Landscape without Figures, Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Texas

· 1994 Solo, Exhibition 50, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, Texas

· 1994 Stories, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1995 Dick Wray: Recent Work, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1995 Convergence, Davis/McClain Gallery, Pennzoil Place, Houston, Texas

· 1996 Manif Seoul ’96, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea

· 1996 The Bird Show, West End Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1996 Dick Wray Paintings, Commander’s Point Art Space Lake Travis, Austin, Texas

· 1996 32 Texas Artists, University of Texas Health Science Center, Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1996 New Works: Paintings and Sculpture, T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, Miami, Florida

· 1996 Cerling Etching Studio: The First Five Years 1990-1995, Transco Tower Gallery, Houston, Texas; Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas

· 1997 AMST Collects in the Modernist Era: 1972-1997, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

· 1997 Dick Wray: First New York Exhibition, Lerner Heller Gallery, New York, New York

· 1997 Committed to Abstraction: Ten in Texas, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

· 1997 Boom, T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, North Miami, Florida

· 1997 ArtView ’97, Art Center of Waco, Texas

· 1997 Establishment and Revelation, Dallas Visual Arts Center, Dallas, Texas (catalogue)

· 1998 Dick Wray Prints, Lesikar Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1998 Solo, Paint as Image, T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, North Miami, Florida

· 1998 Works on Paper, State Thomas Gallery, Dallas, Texas

· 1999 Dick Wray: Installation, ArtScan, Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1999 International and American Contemporary Fine Art, T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, North Miami, Florida

· 2000 Dick Wray: Texas Artist of the Year 2000, Paintings 1960-2000, Art League of Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 2001 Dick Wray: 236 Paintings, ArtScan Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2002 Dick Wray, Texas Christian University, Moudy Gallery, Fort Worth, Texas

· 2004 A Selection of Art Made in Houston 1950-1965, Brazos Projects, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Texas

· 2005 Texas Vision: The Barrett Collection, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

· 2006 Papiros Amorosos, Museo Regional de Queretaro, Oro, Mexico

· 2006 Houston Art in Houston Collections: Works from 1900 to 1965, Heritage Society Museum, Houston, Texas

· 2007 Texas Modern: The Rediscovery of Early Texas Abstraction (1935-1965), Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, Texas (catalogue)

· 2008 Museum of East Texas, Lufkin, Texas

· 2008 Founders of Houston Art: Thirty Artists Who Led the Way, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2009 Dick Wray: Untitled, HCG Gallery, Dallas, Texas

· 2010 Dick Wray: Black & White, Wade Wilson Art, Houston, Texas

· 2011 Breakthrough: Sixty Years of Texas Abstraction, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2012 Dick Wray: Explosive Color/Dynamic Paint, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2012 Texas Expressionism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2013 Rhythms of Modernism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2013 Lives Played Out on Canvas: Paintings by Otis Huband, Richard Stout and Dick Wray, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2014 Houston Founders at City Hall Art Exhibition, City Hall, Houston, Texas

· 2014 A New Visual Vocabulary: Developments in Texas Modernism 1935-1965, One Allen Center, Lobby Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2014 Lone Star Masters of Modernism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2015 Dick Wray: Uncompromising Vision, William Reaves Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 2015 Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams of Modern Art in Houston, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (catalogue)

· 2016 Texas Originals: Six Bayou City Expressionists, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2016 Abstract Dialogues: The Artful Interactions of Ibsen Espada, Dorothy Hood and Dick Wray, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2016 Houston's Expressionist Legacy: Richard Stout & Friends, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2017 Focus on the 70s and 80s: Houston Foundations Part II, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2018 Foundations III Part II, Dick Wray: Select Works, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2018 DCG: Looking Back and Beyond, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2019 Immediacey: Watercolors by Dick Wray, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2019 Modernist Views of the Southwest, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2019 Dick Wray: A Revelation, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2021 Expressions of the '70s: Dick Wray, Earl Staley, and Contemporaries, Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, Cypress, Texas

· 2021 20 in 2020 Part 3: Houston Foundations, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2023 Dick Wray: Expressions, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas

Selected Public Collections

Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York

Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, Texas

Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

Chase Bank, Manhattan, New York City, New York

Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas

Museum of East Texas, Lufkin, Texas

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California

San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas

Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas

University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma

Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Dick Wray

More by this artist